Activists Say Holiday Cheer Is a Bummer for the Planet

One group of activists is fighting to expose the damage that’s done every year by holiday cheer.

A Few Thoughts on the Killings in Newtown

So many of us are thinking the same few sad thoughts. They may come with vivid images or without, depending on what you’ve seen and what you’ve known. They may toll through your being with peals of sympathy or only skitter over the surface. But so many of us can’t help thinking that the recent […]

Correctives

New Leaked GOP Memo Shows Party Ready to Confront Climate Change

We have recently come across a source of internal memos showing the Republican Party struggling to redefine itself in the wake of electoral defeat. Here’s the latest: FROM: Frank Thompson, Culver City BPOE TO: Reince Priebus, Chairman, Republican National Committee Dear Reince, We’re losing ground on so many fronts, but the thing that killed us this […]

Correctives

EXCLUSIVE Internal GOP Memos Show Growing Creativity and Energy in the Party after Electoral Defeat

A friend of ours has a name that differs by only one letter from that of Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Since few people can believe that Reince Priebus is actually named Reince Priebus, they frequently misspell his name. For years, our friend has occasionally received misdirected emails, but the trickle […]

A Life Examined

The Lesson of the Payoffs

We were recently at a birthday party. It was the kind that’s held at a bar with no arrangement with the management, and thus no free drinks or private space. The celebrants stand together for a while, and then seem to forget the occasion, and filter into the normal mayhem of a Friday night.

A Life Examined

Nothing says “I love you”

like neglect.

A Life Examined

If you’re not thinking about how to manipulate your children

every single moment, you’re not really parenting.

A Life Examined

If you do something and you feel guilty about it,

next time tell your children not to do it.

A Life Examined

A Middle Manager Is Inspired after Watching the Film Version of 300

I will hold out. I will stand my ground. No matter the forces arrayed against me…. It’s will and courage. That’s what it takes. I have will. I have courage. I am a man. I will stay at my desk. No matter the urgency, no matter the pain, I will not retreat to the urinal. […]

A Life Examined

A Middle Manager Describes How He Likes to Cut Loose

If you don’t have a problem with dizziness, you can spin around in your chair. I get dizzy, though.

A Life Examined

A Middle Manager on the Art of Getting Ahead

When the CEO calls an all-staff meeting, the most important thing to remember is to get a seat on the aisle. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself trapped in the midst of all those people, all those bodies, all those intestines slowly digesting sausage, egg, and biscuit breakfasts. Before you know it, you’re being buffeted in a […]

A Life Examined

A Middle Manager on His Craft

There’s great power in apology, if you know how to do it right, and I am a master apologizer. The trick is to make the other person feel so powerful, so vindicated, so right in every way that they no longer care about whatever you did. Say your boss is mad because you lost a […]